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If you vote for the GOP, here is what you’re signing up for

What will happen if you vote Republican.

If you were wondering what would happen to Washington State if you vote Republican, you only need to look at other states that have Republican governors, legislatures, secretaries of state and local officials.

If you’re a worker:

• The overwhelming majority of states with Republican governors are right-to-work, which impact workers’ rights to fair labor laws and family living wages.

• Access to contraceptives, cancer screening, preventive health services, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, insurance coverage for birth control and more are being threatened.

• Laws that invade women’s private health care decisions and force unnecessary invasive procedures that are not recommended by their physicians have been passed.

• Republican-led state governments have introduced bills that could sacrifice a woman’s life in dangerous delivery situations.

•The Violence Against Women Act was opposed.

• Republican-led states consistently opposed equal pay laws.

If you are a voter:

• States with Republican governors have passed restrictive voting laws. These include photo ID laws, voter ID laws, restricting registration, reducing early and absentee voter days and disqualifying registered voters.

• No widescale voter fraud has ever been found in the United States that would warrant these laws. This is voter suppression and one of the greatest threats to our democracy supported by Republican officeholders.

• With a Republican governor, Secretary of State, legislature, what will prevent voter purges and discrimination or redistricting to favor Republican voting?

If you are a senior:

• Both state and federal Republican lawmakers wish to “privatize” Medicare. This means creating vouchers, which, according to the Congressional Budget Office would increase average costs to seniors by as much as $2,200/year.

• They also want to privatize Social Security, the most successful U.S. government program that has kept millions of seniors alive. The Republican plans would cut Social Security benefits for most recipients.

If you are a minority:

• Efforts are made to restrict minorities from voting. Many of these Republican-led states passed laws in order to reduce minority rights.

• Republicans filed a lawsuit to strike down the Voting Rights Act.

• Republicans are generally against affirmative action and other programs that level the playing field.

• They tend to be in support of “privatizing” public schools, which can result in a return to a form of segregation.

Republicans claim they are for “limited” government yet they propose some of the most invasive and far-reaching governmental intrusion into citizens’ lives.

• In Michigan, under their “emergency” laws, elected officials can be replaced by non-elected emergency managers. The public has no say and no representation.

• In many states, women are forced to have invasive medical procedures and loss of control over their family planning.

• Decisions about education can be taken away from elected school boards, student and parents. Private education trumps public education.

• Workers lose their rights.

• Voters lose their rights.

• Consumer and environmental protections are lost.

• Women lose control over their reproductive rights.

• Who you marry could be dictated by the state.

You think Rob McKenna will be different? If so, why was he one of the first to jump on the bandwagon to file suit against the Affordable Care Act, which protects women’s healthcare choices and expands Medicaid health care coverage? McKenna proudly touted himself as one of the primary instigators behind the multi-state lawsuit against the health care reform legislation, even though he had no support from the governor or Legislature or the public.

What is the Republican plan for turning Washington into a right-to-work state? In 1998, while on the King County Council, McKenna voted against a motion that urged an employer to “bargain with its employees in good faith.” He led efforts to prevent the county from doing business with union shops, bizarrely disparaging as “racist and sexist” an ordinance requiring the county to hire union apprentices. McKenna has used his office to work against the interests of workers and their right to organize. Nothing he has said or done indicate he has changed his views.

The Washington State Republican Party Platform echoes the beliefs that will lead to these restrictive policies. Why have McKenna and other Republican candidates not spoken out against them?

Is this what we want for Washington State? Your vote will be the answer.